I do not accept electricity as proof of consciousness, as I would not accept it as proof of "War and Peace".
Quite correct! I have never heard of a light bulb being able to think or being aware of its own existence.
I can't imagine why my prior posts have been so difficult to understand. I have repeatedly said that electricity is evidence of consciousness. Not "proof" -- although we certainly don't need to prove our own consciousness, do we? Anyway, I said what I said; not what you said that I said. Like a good creationist -- if that's what you are -- you now reject the evidence (because it flunks some test that you invented and that I never uttered), and you seem on the road to claiming there is no difference between spirit and consciousness. And although you reject the evidence I've told you about, which clearly destroyes your "consciousness = spirit" doctrine, I'll bet you have no problem at all in accepting the existence of "spirit", although as all the world knows, there is no evidence at all for such a thing.
Consciousness, which is largely an unexplored and poorly understood phenomenon, is nevertheless quite different from spirit. Consciousness has an objectively verifiable existence (as spirit does not). We know, and can easily demonstrate, that consciousness has an electrical component. It appears to be electro-chemical in nature, and the objective evidence of its existence (all those graphic printouts) appear to cease when the host organism dies. So the evidence suggests that consciousness exists within, is a component of, and requires a living organism. None of this evidence exists for "spirit." It is sometimes suggested that consciousness has a "spiritual" component too, but the objectively verifiable evidence for that, as with spirit in general, does not exist.
219 posted on 2/21/02 3:38 PM Pacific by PatrickHenryThis isn't my field (nor yours, apparently). But my layman's understanding is that the activity generated by our brains is different during sleep, dreams, waking activity, etc. I'm just not qualified to get into this in any detail at all. But this I do know -- there are no verifiable electrical readouts at all for creatures (deities, angels, whatever) from the so-called "spirit world."
226 posted on 2/21/02 4:19 PM Pacific by PatrickHenryI say only that there is evidence of electrical activity and this is associated with consciousness. That's all I said, and frankly, it's all I know. But this is sufficient to make consciousness different from "spirit" which provides us with no objective evidence of its existence.
231 posted on 2/21/02 5:08 PM Pacific by PatrickHenryBut how do you know that spirit and consciousness are different.
238 posted on 2/21/02 6:14 PM Pacific by AndrewCI've already told you. Twice. We have evidence of consciousness. Clear now?
240 posted on 2/21/02 7:01 PM Pacific by PatrickHenry